World briefs: 100 missing as ferry sinks

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DHAKA, Bangladesh — At least two people were killed and more than 100 were missing after a ferry overloaded with an estimated 250 people capsized in gusty winds in a river in central Bangladesh Monday, police said.

Rescuers were searching for victims in the district of Munshiganj, about 19 miles south of the capital Dhaka, police officer Toffazal Hossain said. He said the rescuers had found two bodies in the river. Local residents and divers rescued about 100 passengers from the Padma river after the boat carrying some 250 people sank, said local government official Mohammad Khalekuzzaman.

They had not yet found the sunken ferry itself, he said.

Quake survivors found

KUNMING, China — Rescuers found scores of survivors Monday as they dug through homes shattered by an earthquake in southern China that killed at least 398 people and injured more than 1,800. Rainstorms were expected to continue to hinder rescue efforts over the coming days.

About 12,000 homes collapsed when the magnitude 6.1 quake struck Sunday afternoon in impoverished Ludian county, around 230 miles northeast of Yunnan province’s capital, Kunming, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Kenya boosts security

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya is determined to do whatever it takes to eradicate al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia to prevent East Africa’s biggest economy from becoming enmeshed in fighting a Nigeria-type insurgency, President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

The government is boosting spending on security and wants to work more closely with the international community to help defeat the threat posed by terrorism, Mr. Kenyatta said.

Beijing targets coal use

BEIJING — Beijing will ban coal use in its six main districts by the end of 2020, state media cited the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau as saying, as the Chinese capital steps up efforts to combat air pollution.

Beijing and the surrounding area in China’s northeast is often wreathed in noxious smog, which has been cited as a factor in high rates of lung cancer.

Parts for Russia blocked

BERLIN — The German government, ramping up the economic pressure on Russia over its meddling in Ukraine, has blocked delivery of parts for a high-tech military training center that was to be completed in Russia by the end of the year, a spokeswoman for the Economics Ministry said Monday.

Sigmar Gabriel, the economics minister, withdrew the right of Rheinmetall, one of Germany’s leading military equipment contractors, to deliver the final parts of a field-exercise simulator to Russia that was set to be operational in the fall. The move goes a step beyond sanctions adopted by EU members last week, which did not apply to existing contracts.

Start of WWI marked

LONDON — With a dimming of the lights and ceremonies across this country and in Belgium, monarchs, princes, presidents and citizens commemorated Monday the day 100 years ago when Britain entered World War I at the start of four years of carnage once called the war to end all wars.

In Liege and Mons in Belgium, ceremonies bringing together representatives of the onetime warring powers were to signify the first day of what is still known to some as the Great War, which started on Aug. 4, 1914. No formal ceremonies were planned in Berlin, with German commemorations focused at ceremonies in lands once conquered by German soldiers.